Electronic media players have become popular personal entertainment devices due to their highly portable nature and interconnectivity with existing computer networks, for example the Internet. The accessibility and simplicity in downloading music and other electronic media continues to fuel the popularity of these devices as is exemplified by Apple Computer, Inc.'s highly successful iPod™ portable media player. Other manufacturers have competing media players offering various functionalities and file playing compatibilities in an effort to differentiate their products in the marketplace.
As discussed in Apple Computer, Inc., patent application, US 2004/0224638 A1, Ser. No. 10/423,490 to Fadell, et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety; an increasing number of consumer products are incorporating circuitry to play musical media files and other electronic media.
For example, many portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) include the ability to play electronic musical media in many of the most commonly available file formats including MP3, AVI, WAV, MPG, QT, WMA, AIFF, AU, RAM, RA, MOV, MIDI, etc.
In the relevant art, portable media players lack the ability to correlate a user's activities, schedules, locations, motions, physiological and psychological states to select, suggest and/or automatically play a media file to enhance the user's listening and/or viewing experience. Users are therefore reliant on manual selections, a preestablished play list(s) or selections of others which do not take into account the many variables that affect a user's current preferences. For example, a user's preferences are highly variable based on the user's mood, scheduled events, current activity, seasonal changes, weather conditions, user listening preferences, physiological state, physiological state, locale and other variables which impact a user's musical preferences.
Therefore, a predictive mechanism that automatically performs media file selection and playing is a highly desirable feature for portable media players available in the relevant art.
In addition, a supplemental user interface which provides a simplified mechanism for users to reject or defer a currently playing media file selected by the aforementioned predictive mechanism is another highly desirable feature for implementation in portable media players available in the relevant art.